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"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something."

Neil Gaiman

I hope the new year has been a new beginning for all of you to acheive things that you may have put on the back burner last year. 2014 was an amazing year with many wonderful goals that were achieved. Stephanie Nicole got signed to BBE records for our LP Soulutionary One which will be available for purchase January 26, 2015. This has been a goal of ours (Classroom Craig and I) to be signed to a record label since putting out our EP Voices back in 2013. I love BBE and the artist who have been on their label such as : JDilla, Questlove, Phantogram, Bilal, Madlib and many more have been inspirational to our own work ! So thankful for this! Gotta give a shoutout to BamaloveSoul for first putting Stephanie Nicole on their compilation "On Deck 2" featuring Diligene which got a lot of recognition.

Almost a year later from that release Stephanie NIcole FINALLY has a full length album! I say finally because I went through a lot in 2014 which has been such a wonderful growing experience. I became pregnant and I am so happy to say I am a mother now! I recorded majority of Soulutionary One while being pregnant so if you're a singer you will know how hard it can be to sing let alone breathe when a baby is right underneath your lungs. This album has brought a lot of things to light about myself and past relationships between myself, the earth, and other people. Days when I wasnt feeling so well I would go for hikes and just clear my head while getting inspired by natures beauty. Nature Heals which is why "Just Love Her" had to be put on this album! Being pregnant also made me realize how fortunate I am to have a loving husband and a great male role model for our son. This brought up how I wasnt able to have my own father in my life but how lucky I was to have my Grandfather, my Uncle and my husband as great male role models. These wonderful men led me to write "Vow of Nevers" and "Now You're Here". Now your here is a song about letting go in order to do whats best for yourself, especially if this person in your life isnt helping you be the best that you can be.

Keeping balanced in all I do has been something I was striving for during my pregnancy. Its a very emotional time and I practiced meditation/prayer a lot more. Doing this made me think of mantras to say to myself which lead us to writing "Maha Mediation" and why I wrote Soulutionary One in the past. I hope these songs were relaxing to you as much as it was for me when writing and playing them. These songs not only relaxed me but were also very uplifting. I wanted to have other songs on the album that were uplifting that also showed how life is an on going learning and growing process. "Welcoming Change" I thought was going to be the only song like that when one day Classroom Craig and I were just jamming one morning and that jam turned into "Replenish" . I love both of these songs! Everyday is a gift and dreams only come true if we believe in ourselves. As well as making sure we put time and effort into things we are passionate about or else those dreams are only dreams and wont become our reality. Stay true to you , and always consider what is in yourself!

Now "Diligence" was the first song that was released from our LP and a song that for the first time we had trouble thinking of what we should write for the Chorus. Bringing a child into this world where some only see trouble and chaos was hard to swallow but Classroom Craig found a quote from Martin Luther Kings Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech that really resonated with us:

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality." MLK 12/10/1964

When we read this it was so powerful to us at that moment that we had to write about it. Diligence talks about a lot going on today but its nothing new, some things I touch base on has been going on for years and my hope is that as time passes we show tolerance to all beings!

I hope you find Soulutionary One a joy to listen to and that all your dreams are coming true in 2015! Thank you for all your support through the process! Below is a link to check out Soulutionary One and also our latest video "replenish"

Record Store Day was a success for BamaLoveSouls On Deck 2 and Moods Music in Atlanta! I learned that questlove acquired our music (classroom Craig and myself)on record store day. Our song 'Diligence' has been getting a lot of recognition which we are super thankful for!

Recently we were mentioned in Blues and Soul Magazine,

"Proceedings start to get going around track 3, "Diligence" by Stephanie Nichole, who puts forward a rather convincing vocal delivery over a two chord slow grinding burner with that ever present electric piano (which from now on will be referred to as e-piano) adding an immense class to the extremely late night feel of the track (which frankly isn't in its minority on this album!) "

As well as making Paris djs March-April Playlist... Paris Djs gave us some very kind words also saying,"It's essential to support explorators such as Roderick Moody aka DJ Rahdu, who's bringing here a second volume of his soulful & spiritual 'On Deck' selections, full of brand new talents he handppicked and asked to produce a track especially for this project, giving them a six month time to deliver… The space funk of 'Diligence' by Stephanie Nicole is our favorite of the lot in this relaxing, rather horizontal panorama of the emerging neo-soul scene."

I am so thankful for what has happened over the past couple months and really excited for our upcoming album' Soulutionary One' I have been in the studio a lot lately and almost all the songs are done Music and the warm weather has been keeping me busy so I cant complain ! Thank you everyone for the support!

The time is now! My newest song 'Diligence' is now available for purchae along with eleven other amazing artist on BamaLoveSoul On Deck 2 Compilation released by record label BBE! To Preview the songs on this compilation please see the link below

When trying to decide on what to submit to BamaLoveSoul for this amazing compilation Classroom Craig and I have been working on many songs for our upcoming album Soulutionary One. With everything going on in the world today we felt that Diligence would be the right fit for awakening social change and bringing to light what has been overlooked by many.

When Classroom Craig first wrote and recorded the music for Diligence he had been listening to a lot of J Dilla and felt particularly inspired to try to do something similar (or so he thought). He decided that he would start with a simple kick/snare drum beat. After that he found a chord progression on the keys, and built the song from there. It ended up not being what he initially intended, but that's how it goes.

Upon receiving the song from Classroom Craig I had no trouble adding vocals, using my "ugly voice" on the first verse and then finishing the song with a beautiful repeating melody. I was inspired by vocals done by Erykah Badu and Portishead on certain songs where they sang through their nose, which in my choir days would be looked down upon. The choruses were a major challenge for us for quite some time. As we sat on on the floor of the studio trying to write the chorus one day, we somehow came across this quote from MLK -" I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality." We both loved the phrase 'daybreak of peace' and as I repeated it, the rest of the chorus just followed. We then put it all together and it became what you hear now. While not necessarily sounding like a Dilla track, it was inspired by his music, and the name of the song is a play on his name. So it is a little crazy to us that it is being released 4 days after his birthday by Barely Breaking Even a label that released several of his albums. We are excited to share this track and thankful/honored to have it included on this amazing compilation.

We have already been getting attention of many music bloggers! Without them and our fans I dont know what we would do! Here are what some are saying below:

Dereks Music Blog wrote- "From the opening bars of Diligence, it’s apparent Stephanie Nicole is a diva in waiting. The only way to describe her vocal is feisty and emotive. She delivers lyrics that are full of social comment. This she does against an arrangement that’s a fusion of cosmic funk, soul, jazz and drama. It’s ying to Stephanie’s yang."

Happy New Year everyone I hope that the new year has been bringing you peace, love and happiness!

2014 has given me the honor to be featured on BamaLoveSoul On Deck 2 music compilation with many other talented artist. My newest song 'Diligence' is #3 on the album and I really hope that you will enjoy the track! The album will be released by BBE and will be available for purchase February 11, 2014 but luckily you can pre order your copy today.

As we enter Novemeber I hope we are all enjoy the sunshine on our skin and the trees being green while we can. I have been inspired a lot lately by people I meet and the movies and information I read. I have been working hard in the studio trying to make my album Soulutionary One something memorable and uplifting. Make sure you keep in touch with me through the proccess and are enjoying each moment. I wish you all a great start to this beautiful Month of November and once again thank you for the support along the journey.

I am so excited for this wonderful interview I did with Music Shephard. Amelia asked some great questions and It was fun to be featured on such a wonderful music blog. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did and I have to thank you for the support! Keep in touch with what I am up to and feel free to email me for any questions or inquiries

Such a wonderful day yesterday on Fox, I was fortunate enough to showcase how wonderful juicing is. If you havent seen it already you should definitely check out my segment! Juicing is great for absorbing nutritents from food since cooking food doesnt allow you for fully absorb all your enzymes you would receive from raw foods. If you need Fiber definitely encorporate some smoothies in your daily regime along with a few glasses of freshly made juices using whole foods. I hope you enjoy the clip and I hope your week is turning out beautifully

We have moved into Fall and I am sure missing the summer. I am making sure I appreciate all that I encounter and super thankful for where I live. Recently I was able to attend a red carpet event for the Emmys and it was such a great experience that allowed me to meet some very humble amazing actors. Here are a few images from the event. I hope you enjoy !

Music Videos coming soon and making some sweet melodies for my Album soulutionary one please stay in touch !

Founder and CEO, E. Alexcina Brown writes about what the latest topics are in the music industry from marketing to the joy of being a musician. I really enjoy what she has to say and she is even featured in a great magazine called Niji Magazine as well:http://nijimagazine.com/

Its been way to long! I have been going to class (seeing more live shows) and writing a lot lately. I have so many ideas for this album I know its going to be amazing to see how the album flows. I cant wait to share and I hope everyone is enjoying the music they have heard on my Voices EP. Since I realeased the EP I have been super thankful for all the people and my fellow musicians who have taken the time to listen. I appreaciate you! I havent uploadd any of my Voices EP to Soundcloud so if you havent bought my EP on bandcamp: stephanienicole.bandcamp.com/